Turning the heat up on the garden

For the past 3 days it has been chilly and gray and rainy. Today dawned gray and chilly again. By 9 it had started to warm up and now it is pretty much like being under a blow torch. The humidity is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Consequently, everything in the garden is exploding. The clematis has started to bloom, the yellow rose is going to town and it's only a matter of minutes before the pink rose gets in on the act. Hopefully, the pink rose and the clematis will bloom together again. It's like a parade float of drag queens.

At the moment, it's peonies, poppies, yarrow and cornflowers, which is a bit of a relief from the blues and purples. The lupines and pansies were nice, but it's always nice when the garden gets its loud on. Here's a few pictures of what is starting to happen.

More gardening

I have managed to negotiate another weekend. This one was far less social, and I think I needed the break. By the end of the week, I had been just about peopled out. I think I was starting to suffer from paranoid delusions and was willing to take the most innocent remark from friends as a token of their dislike or indifference to me.

Instead I got in a little quality time with the garden. Dealing with some less than glamorous and largely unnoticable maintenance that needed to be done. There are still weeds and uprooted plants littering the paths that need to be cleaned up and old take out cups and plant containers that need to be bagged and sent off to the garbage can.

Paths need to be dug up and weeded. Should I seed them with grass?

My neighbor Mike's garden is looking great this spring. It has matured nicely and looks orderly and graceful. My own garden is starting to look like the attic of your crazy aunt who can't throw anything away. Like a messy house, there are also things I know I didn't bring in with me. Some I can't complain about too loudly. Larkspur is sprouting up everywhere. I can only guess that the birds were feasting and then suffered a serious bout of incontinence. Oh, shut up! How do you think those oddball plants that you never introduced to your garden got there? Garden fairies?

Be that as it may, I will work with what I have at hand for the summer. I think some serious rethinking and editing is going to be called for. Some plants that were living side by side in a harmonious manner are now crowding each other like fat people in a small room.

Considering food prices, I may also reconsider my boycott of food crops. I have actually put in some radishes this year and I planted a couple of green beans, so I will see just how good or bad I am about harvesting. I am looking forward to baby green beans.

All that is beside the point for now however, so instead I will settle for a feast for the eyes.

Page 123, 3rd sentence

Doralong tapped me for this meme. Page 123, 3rd sentence.

The closest book to hand was "The March of Folly", by Barbara Tuchman.

"Palaces were plundered and left in flames; churches and monasteries sacked for their treasures, relics trampled after being stripped of jeweled covers, tombs broken open in the search for more treasure, the Vatican used as a stable."

Ms. Tuchman is describing the political situation in late Renaissance Europe. I think what we learn from history is that mankind is incapable of learning from history.

More flowers

Yesterday threatened rain all day, without delivering. Finally, last evening we got the thundershowers that we had been promised. I trotted out to the garden this morning to see how a little rain affected things.






The poppies are poppin'! My oriental poppies are really letting loose and there are still plenty more buds. And my shirley poppies have sent out their first scout! I love field poppies. There is something delicate about them and they are pretty ephemeral. But while they are blooming, they are like little shreds of red, orange and pink silk floating around the garden.

As far as color goes, I needed this. Things are pretty heavy on the purple and blue side right at the moment. So having some nicely clashing orange and red is refreshing and my yellow rose is starting to open up. In a few more days the yarrow should be adding a nice cluster of yellow as well and I am hoping that in another week, the New Dawn rose will be doing its thing lending soft cream and pink along the fence.

I put in marigolds this year, so once those boys get going, I should have some nice vibrant yellows and oranges.

All in all, late spring is well on it's way and I am looking forward to seeing how things work out this year. So far, so good.